Markus Zusak - The Book Thief (2005)

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Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.

Markus Zusak
Handfuls of frosty water can make almost anyone smile, but it cannot make them forget.

Markus Zusak
You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies. I've seen millions of them. I've seen more eclipses than I care to remember

Markus Zusak
Yes, the sky was now a devastating, home-cooked red. The small German town had been flung apart one more time. Snowflakes of ash fell so lovelily you were tempted to stretch out your tongue to catch them, taste them. Only, they would have scorched your lips. They would have cooked your mouth.

Markus Zusak
In the basement of 33 Himmel Street, Max Vandenburg could feel the fists of an entire nation. One by one they climbed into the ring to beat him down. They made him bleed. They let him suffer. Millions of them—until one last time, when he gathered himself to his feet...

Markus Zusak
When she faced the noise, she found the mayor's wife in a brand-new bathrobe and slippers. On the breast pocket of the robe sat an embroidered swastika. Propaganda even reached the bathroom.

Markus Zusak
Rosa Hubermann was sitting on the edge of the bed with her husband's accordion tied to her chest. Her fingers hovered above the keys. She did not move. She didn't ever appear to be breathing.

Markus Zusak
It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding.

Markus Zusak
Could she smell my breath? Could she hear my cursed circular heart beat revolving like the crime it is in my deathly chest?

Markus Zusak
He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.

Markus Zusak
There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if it were empty.

Markus Zusak
When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.

Markus Zusak
It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you may expect, someone has died.

Markus Zusak
Clearly, I see it. I was just about to leave when I found her kneeling there. A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her. She was clucthing at a book.

Markus Zusak
It was one of those moments of perfect tiredness, of having conquered not only the work at hand, but the night who had blocked the way.

Markus Zusak
There would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.

Markus Zusak
An attribute of Rosa Hubermann, she was a good woman for a crisis.

Markus Zusak
You can do all manner of underhanded nice things when you have a caustic reputation.

Markus Zusak
I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate.

Markus Zusak
As always, she was carrying the washing. Rudy was carrying two buckets of cold water, or as he put it, two buckets of future ice.

Markus Zusak
The nightmares arrived like they always did, much like the best player in the opposition when you've heard rumors that he might be injured or sick-but there he is, warming up with the rest of them, ready to take the field.

Markus Zusak
I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

Markus Zusak
The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this.

Markus Zusak
Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me.

Markus Zusak
In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer - proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.

Markus Zusak
She closes the door completely, and I crouch there. I allow myself to fall forward and rest my head on the door frame. My breath bleeds. My heartbeat drowns my ears.

Markus Zusak
His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say "I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come." Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.

Markus Zusak
When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.

Markus Zusak
If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.

Markus Zusak
You should know it yourself- a young man is still a boy, and a boy sometimes has the right to be stubborn.

Markus Zusak